COLUMBIA, S.C. — The City of Columbia is working to improve its public works department and its water department by hiring more people.
In February, the city addressed problems within their departments, including backlog work orders and staffing shortages.
"I cut them a little slack because of COVID," said Columbia resident Isaiah Green. "I think that threw a lot of people back."
Green said getting in contact with someone from the city to fix an issue like water leaks, pothole repairs, and other problems is a hassle.
"In trying to do other things involving the City of Columbia, that often times it is backed up and often times it does take a long time for you to get someone on the phone or something like that," Green told News 19.
Assistant City Manager Clint Shealy said since February, the city was able to staff their call center with 25 representatives, cutting wait times from nearly 12 minutes, to an average of two. The city said it moved their nightside and weekend crews to work during the day—when most calls come in.
To replace those workers, the city hired a call center service to answer all other calls. The city also hired more staff members, allowing them to shorten the backlog of work orders from more than 4,100 down to 3,575.
"We’ve been using an accelerated hiring process and a temp service, basically to on-board more of our laborer class and employees," Shealy said. "So, on the public works side, it’s been really successful for staffing up on solid waste."
For Columbia Water, which had 207 vacancies in February, filling positions has been difficult for the city, Shealy said. In an effort to incentivize applicants and retain current employees, the department is increasing pay by $2/hr., and offering $150 for any worker who is on call for the week.
"We’re pulling that money from the water and sewer revenue fund from the personnel budget, and utilizing that for the pay increases and the on-call stipend," Shealy said.
Shealy said water department is losing and hiring people at the same rate, leaving the agency still in need of nearly 200 jobs. Shealy hopes a job fair that was held in April, will allow them to lower the number of open positions.
"Hopefully, they’ll get to a point where they can stay on top of them and they don’t get backlogged again," Green said.